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KPN did not have to go all the way to court, however — it reached a settlement with BREIN which meant it was able to lift the ban on users accessing The Pirate Bay.

In May 2012, KPN was ordered to block access to all of The Pirate Bay's domains or face a €10,000 a day fine, up to a maximum of €250,000. That ruling has now been rendered ineffective by the settlement.

Only temporary

KPN said BREIN is now seeking to settle with all the other ISPs it's been involved in similar cases with — cases which were likely to have the same outcome as Ziggo and XS4ALL's.

Shortly after losing that case, BREIN announced that all other ISPs still being forced to block access to The Pirate Bay as a result of the 2012 order could temporarily lift the ban in consultation with the antipiracy organisation.

Although it may seem that BREIN has admitted defeated, the suspension of the ban is only temporary, according to the organisation.

'Ineffective' ban

In its ruling, the Court of Justice in the Hague said that BREIN could no longer force ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay, since the ban had proved "ineffective" and the amount of content being downloaded illegally had not dropped significantly following the ban.

BREIN expressed its disappointment following the ruling: "It's remarkable that the court deemed the block to be ineffective while conceding that both visits to The Pirate Bay and the number of subscribers infringing copyright have decreased. However, the court believes that the purpose of the block is to cut the total number of infringements. Because the overall BitTorrent traffic at XS4ALL did not decrease, the court assumes that its subscribers are circumventing the blocking or visiting other torrent sites. The court considers that BREIN should have requested the blocking of other illegal websites at the same time. BREIN does not agree with the court's reasoning," the organisation said.

Supreme Court ruling

BREIN director Tim Kuik said he expects the Supreme Court to find in the organisation's favour when it rules on its appeal on the matter, and that any leniency towards ISPs over the block is only temporary.

A date for the Supreme Court ruling has yet to be set, and it may take another year to eighteen months before a final verdict is reached. Until then, Dutch downloaders are allowed to roam free in the digital seas of The Pirate Bay.

Martin began his IT career in 1998 covering games and gadgets, only to discover that the scope of his interests extended far beyond that. Ironically, where he used to cover 'anything with a plug', he now focuses on the wireless world. A self-pronounced Apple enthusiast who can't live without his Windows PC, he writes tech news, reviews an...
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